Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is negotiating a behind-closed-doors deal with Republican lawmakers to pass a bill that would ostensibly address California's drought—an effort that has uncorked a flood of criticism from environmental circles.

Feinstein's quiet push for a compromise drought bill that's palatable to Big Ag-aligned House Republicans has been in the works for six months, Kate Poole, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told me. And it has accelerated recently, as the Senator hopes to pass it by year end, during the "lame duck" period of the outgoing Democratic-controlled Senate.

Feinstein spokesman Tom Mentzer wrote in an email that "draft language continues to be negotiated between House and Senate offices and nothing is final." But he would divulge no other details—not even a timeline for when a broad outline of the controversial legislation might be released to the public.

The main issue involves management of the Central Valley Project, a federally owned irrigation system that moves water from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range to farmland in the state's main growing region, the Central Valley.

The state's high-powered farm interests, particularly those in the desert-like zones of the Central Valley's southwestern corner, want to maximize their access to these federally controlled water flows. This is precisely the part of the Central Valley that's in the midst of a huge expansion of water-intensive almond and pistachio orchards.

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